Artist, Jaeda Renae, is featuring four of my adult poems on her Facebook page today. The poetry is artfully superimposed on the photography of Adair Puz Davidson. I met Jaeda during the March Madness. She is a friend of my husband, Malcolm Deeley, who is a speculative poet. Once we were introduced, she took off promoting my poems for March Madness. March Madness has opened many doors for me and forged new friendships. I've truly known what it feels like to have fans and to have other poets pulling for me. Exhausting as it was, it was an incredible experience. And I got to meet Jaeda, an artist, who loves my husband's poetry and loves mine as well.

Thank you so much, Jaeda, for taking the time to put together this feature of my poems and Adair Puz Davidson's photography. Brilliant photography and brilliant job! Thanks again!

I had a terrific time doing March Madness this year and I'd like to again express my thanks to Ed DeCaria of Think Kid Think for hosting the contest every year and for putting an amazing amount of work into it on top of his day job. I'd also like to express my thanks to everyone who was behind me, supporting me, and voting for me. I felt it and it felt wonderful! I went into it with a whole lot of trepidation because I don't normally perform well under pressure. But even though I was sleep deprived, drinking copious quantities of green tea to help me stay up all night. writing double dactyls that really missed the mark, somehow, some way, I got it together enough to continue for five rounds. I can't ever remember feeling so inspired!

In the fourth round, my word was "imperceptible." I spent quite a while making lists of things that were imperceptible, such as an imperceptible glance between two high-schoolers that have begun to like each other (and I actually did write a poem using this idea.) Or, a grandfather pointing out to his granddaughter the imperceptible beginnings of spring. I did not use this idea but in the fifth round, I think the seeds had been planted, because I wrote my villanelle about the celebration of spring time. Nothing is ever wasted. Nothing is ever lost.

With these thoughts swirling in my head, I went to bed, and when I woke up the next day (I wouldn't say it was morning), I realized I wanted to write a pantoum. I had recently been experimenting with pantoums but had never managed to complete one in just four stanzas. That would be my challenge and here's the pantoum I came up with for round four:

﻿Behind the Dancing Rain: A Pantoum

Lying in bed on nights when it storms,I dream of a world past my window pane:imperceptible movements, mysterious forms,masked by the dance of the thunder-clapped rain.

I dream of a world past my window pane--the gnarled fingers of troll-like trees.Masked by the dance of the thunder-clapped rain,owls hoo-hoo in the gusty breeze.

The gnarled fingers of troll-like treestap the walls of my hapless house.Owls hoo-hoo in the gusty breeze.In a sodden field sleeps a quiet mouse.

Tapping the walls of my hapless house,imperceptible movements, mysterious forms.In a sodden field sleeps a quiet mousein its own hidden bed on nights when it storms.﻿

All Rights Reserved 2014 B.J. Lee

I'd also like to do a how-to on the pantoum similar to the one I did on the villanelle simply because I love forms!

Since I posted my villanelle, "Spring Has Sprung: A Villanelle" in the March Madness Poetry Competition, I have had several questions about the villanelle form itself. So I decided to do a blog post about the villanelle. This is not meant to be an exhaustive examination of the villanelle form but simply my experience with writing villanelles and some things I've learned about them. I like poetry.about.com's definition of the villanelle which includes the breakdown of the rhyme scheme:

The villanelle’s 19 lines form five triplets and a quatrain, using only two rhymes throughout the whole form. The entire first line is repeated as lines 6, 12 and 18 and the third line is repeated as lines 9, 15 and 19—so that the lines which frame the first triplet weave through the poem like refrains in a traditional song, and together form the end of the concluding stanza. With these repeating lines [often called the repetend] represented as A1 and A2 (because they rhyme together), the entire scheme is:

﻿A1bA2

abA1 (refrain)

abA2 (refrain)

abA1 (refrain)

abA2 (refrain)

abA1 (refrain)A2 (refrain)﻿

A good example of a villanelle that many people know is Dylan Thomas' haunting, "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" which I will quote here, since it is in the Public Domain. I'll superimpose the rhyme scheme to the right so you can see how Thomas put together his villanelle.

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good NightBy Dylan Thomas 1914-1953

Do not go gentle into that good night, A1Old age should burn and rave at close of day; bRage, rage against the dying of the light. A2

Though wise men at their end know dark is right, aBecause their words had forked no lightning they bDo not go gentle into that good night. A1

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright aTheir frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, bRage, rage against the dying of the light. A2

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, aAnd learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, bDo not go gentle into that good night. A1

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight ﻿a﻿Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, bRage, rage against the dying of the light. A2

And you, my father, there on the sad height, aCurse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. bDo not go gentle into that good night. A1Rage, rage against the dying of the light. A2

* * *

﻿In the process of trying to write villanelles, I have learned two things about writing villlanelles:

1. Be sure you have something worth repeating for your repeating lines as both repeating lines will each be repeated several times.

2, Choose your rhymes carefully. Because there are only two rhymes used throughout each villanelle, you have to choose your rhyme scheme carefully and be sure you have enough rhyming words that will work together to get you through the entire villanelle.* * *

﻿When deciding to write my villanelle for March Madness, I decided to use my unusual given word, 'incontinent,' in one of the repeating lines, because I was using the second definition :

and I wanted to bombard the reader with the word, so no thought of the first definition of 'incontinent' would ever enter the reader's mind.

Secondly, I brainstormed for ideas which were 'incontinent' in themselves; i.e., unrestrained, uncontrolled, unbridled, unfettered, and the one idea that kept coming to me was springtime where buds and blooms are bursting, people are feeling exuberant after a long, cooped-up winter, and are getting out to enjoy the outdoors, syrup is flowing out of maple trees, animals are mating, etc., a veritable riot of unrestrained, out-of-control, unfettered incontinence.

* * *﻿﻿I'd like to include one more bit of information about the villanelle as a member of a family of repeating forms, such as the triolet, the pantoum, and the roundel.﻿I love Tilt-a-Whirl editor, Kate Bernadette Benedict's "﻿Cheat Sheet of Poetic Forms﻿." (I believe Tilt-a-Whirl is no longer being published), but it was good while it lasted and is still online for your reading enjoyment. There are good examples of many of the repeating forms.

﻿Well, I've made it to the Semifinals in the March Madness Poetry Contest currently underway at Ed DeCaria's blog, Think Kid Think. Yup, just four of us left! I was reluctant to try doing the contest because I am not good under pressure, but I am surprising myself on this one. True, I did have several panic-stricken hours when I thought I would not have a poem for Round 3 with the word "pseudonymous," but in the end my wacky poem, "The Amoeba Gang," won the round. With the exception of that very difficult round, however, I am finding that I'm doing well under pressure and also discovering what a work-horse I am!﻿﻿I'm very grateful for being in the contest this go-round because I had been in a bit of a writer' slump. Last year, I participated in the 12 X 12 picture book challenge and, in the end, I was so burned out on picture books, I turned away from them entirely to focus solely on poetry. I may go back to my picture book manuscripts, but at this point, I am thinking poetry and maybe finishing my YA or adult novel(s). I find picture books to be extremely difficult for various reasons which I'll save for another post. So I was feeling at loose ends with my writing "career" such as it is, with no poetry collection yet published and no picture book yet published although I do have a slew of poems published in magazines and about seven poems anthologized. I got a bad case of writer's block and a worse case of depression. We are also in the process of moving, fixing up our old house, and putting an addition on our new house so that has been very disruptive as well. Our old house goes on the market on Sunday, which is very exciting!

March Madness has given me back my drive, reinforced my love for poetry, and given me a desire to press on and see what I can do. It also taught me that, if I get 'stuck' again, simply go in a different direction, take a class, get out my watercolors for awhile, work on my novel. Just do something, something different, and I'll eventually find my way again.

Here is the poem I have submitted for Round 5. I went a few different ways with the word "incontinent", but in the end decided to go with it's secondary meaning rather than write potty-humor, which is sooo not my style. I hope you are finding the time to enjoy the contest. I think Ed is doing a wonderful and very hard thing at Think Kid Think. We all thank you, Ed! I also wanted to thank those who have been supporting me, voting for me, sharing and liking my face book posts and retweeting my tweets. I feel very connected to the poetry community as well as other writers and it's a wonderful feeling.

Here's the poem:﻿

﻿Spring has Sprung: A Villanelle It’s time for a party to celebrate spring!Let’s run with abandon, let’s race with the breeze.A boundlessly joyous, incontinent fling will let winter know he’s no longer the king!Let’s fix up our bikes and let’s put away skis.I’s time for a party to celebrate spring. Let’s fly our kites high, holding tight to the string.Let’s welcome the butterflies, beetles, and beeswith a boundlessly joyous, incontinent fling. Let’s soar to the sky on the seat of a swing.Let’s dance round the lilacs and crabapple trees.It’s time for a party to celebrate spring. The migrating birds are all back on the wing.More crocuses, tulips and daffodils, please,to brighten our joyous, incontinent fling; for springtime is here! Let’s clap and let’s sing! Let’s tumble and tussle and green-up our knees.It’s time for a party to celebrate spring--a boundlessly joyous, incontinent fling.

Author

B. J. Lee is a children’s author and poet. Her picture book, There Was an Old Gator Who Swallowed a Moth, is launching with Pelican Publishing on February 15, 2019. She has poems in 25 poetry anthologies published by Little, Brown, Wordsong, BloomsburyUK, National Geographic, Otter-Barry Books, Pomelo Books, and Chicken Soup for the Soul. She has worked with anthologists Lee Bennett Hopkins, J. Patrick Lewis and Kenn Nesbitt. She has written poems for such children’s magazines as Spider, Highlights and The School Magazine. Follow her on Twitter @bjlee_writer.